The victory came on the heels of the school's senior team's success in retaining the Penang Schools Sports Council-Penang Hockey Association Boys' Under-18 title and lifting the Datuk Ow Soon Kooi Challenge Cup in August.

The Under-14 league tournament, which was participated by a team each from the five districts, was held at the Mutiara Impian Sports School artificial turf hockey pitch in Simpang Empat, Seberang Perai Selatan.

In the league competition, Penang Free School did not concede a single goal as they went on to rout SMK Tunku Abdul Rahman 7-0, SMK Teluk Kumbar 5-0, SMK Dato Hj Abdul Kadir 6-0 and Bukit Mertajam High School 6-0.

The PFS boys were glad that the state's sport school and arch rivals, Mutiara Impian, were not among the five competing teams.

The PFS skipper proved his calibre and was the toast of the team as not only was he instrumental in organising the attacks and defence, he also scored 12 goals.

Following the victory, PFS will represent Penang at the national-level championship scheduled to be held in Johor on Nov 26 to 30.

PFS are also confident of defending the title which they won at the inaugural championship in Kuantan last year.

"We're very proud of the boys as their success came from sheer hard work and their commitment throughout the year in training.

"Unlike Impian Mutiara Sports School, who have their own turf, we have to rely on Universiti Sains Malaysia's (USM) goodwill for the usage of its hockey turf.

"Under the Smart Partnership programme between USM and PFS, we train at USM twice a week.

"We are thankful to them for their cooperation but nevertheless we wish for a turf of our own," said coach Mohd Nazrin Saidon.

PFS manager Yap Gark Soo said: "We are very pleased with our achievement as we are not even a sports school and we are grateful to USM for the support they have given us, without whom we would not be able to be the top hockey-playing school in the state.

"I'm sure we will be able to achieve higher levels if we have a turf of our own to train on a daily basis. I'm confident that it will be the catalyst to bring Penang Free School's hockey players to the next level.". NST